periyavAchAn piLLai – vyAkyAna chakkaravarthi

by
sri:
srimathE rAmAnujAya nama:
srimadh varavaramunayE nama:
sri vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:

periyavAchAn piLLai – sEngaNUr

srImath krishNa samAhvAya namO yAmuna sUnavE
yath katAkshaika lakshyANam sulabha: srIdharas sadhA
ஸ்ரீமத் க்ருஷ்ண ஸமாஹ்வாய நமோ யாமுந ஸூநவே
யத் கடாக்ஷைக லக்ஷ்யாணாம் ஸுலப: ஸ்ரீதரஸ் ஸதா

I
worship periyavAchAn piLLai who is the son of yAmunar and whose
katAksham will make emperumAn sriman nArAyanan’s grace fall on us very
easily.
Thirunkaksathram: AvaNi rOhiNi
avathAra sthalam: sanganallUr (sEngaNUr).
AchAryan: nampiLLai
sishyas: nAyanArAchAn piLLai, vAdhi kEsari azhagiya maNavALa jeeyar,  parakAla dhAsar, etc
Born
as krishnan as the son of yAmunar and sEngaNUr, he becomes to be known
as periyavAchAn piLLai. He is one of the prime sishyas of nampiLLai and
learnt all sAsthra arthams from nampiLLai himself. periyavAchAn piLLai
became an illustrious AchAryan in our sampradhAyam by the grace of
nampiLLai. As in periya thirumozhi 7.10.10, it is said that
thirukkannamangai empeumAn wanted to learn the meanings of thirumangai
AzhwAr’s pAsurams from kaliyan himself – so kaliyan took the avathAram of nampiLLai and emperumAn took the avathAram of periyavAchAn piLLai to
learn all the meanings of the aruLicheyal. He is also known as vyAkyAna chakkaravarthi, abhaya pradha rAjar, etc. He adopts nAyanArAchAn piLLai
as his son.
In his life time, he has done vyAkyAnams for:
  • 4000 dhiyva prabhandham – He has written vyAkyAnams
    for all of aruLicheyal. vyAkyAnams of approximately 400 pAsurams for
    periyAzhwAr thirumozhi was lost and mAmunigaL just wrote those missing
    pAsura vyAkyAnams.
  • sthOthra granthams – He has written vyAkyAnams for
    pUrvAchArya srisUkthis like sthOthra rathna, chathu slOki, gadhya
    thryayam, etc and jithanthE sthOthram.
  • sri rAmAyaNam – He has selected important slOkams
    from sri rAmAyaNam and written a detailed commentary for those in
    rAmAyaNa thani slOki. He was named abhaya pradha rAjar for his masterful
    explanation of vibhIshaNa sharanAgathi episode.
He
has also written many rahasya granthams such as mANikka mAlai, parantha
rahasyam, sakala prAmANa thAthparyam, etc which explains rahasya
thrayam in an excellent manner. He was a pioneer in documenting rahasya
thrayam – piLLai lOkAchAryar took the essence of nampiLLai and
periyavAchAn piLLai’s teachings and wrote his astAdhasa rahasya
granthams.
His
expertise in aruLicheyal and sri rAmAyaNam can be understood by his
grantham called pAsurapadi rAmyAyanam where he uses words from
aruLicheyal to explain the story line of sri rAmAyaNam in a crisp
manner.

The
power of his grace can also be understood from the incident happened in
vAdhi kEsari azhagiya maNavALa jeeyar. jeeyar, in his pUrvAshramam was
serving in the thirumadappaLLi (kitchen) of periyavAchAn piLLai’s
thirumALigai. He was an illiterate but had strong devotion towards his
AchAryan. Once when he overheard some srivaishnavas discussing some
vEdhAntha vishayam, he enquired from them about the topic of discussion.
Them being arrogant and considering him as an illiterate said they were
discussing about a grantham called “musala kisalayam” (newly blossomed 
pounder). He went and mentioned this to his AchAryan and periyavAchAn
piLLai out of his grace decided to teach everything to him. After a few
years, he becomes a master of all sAstram and goes on to become vAdhi
kEsari azhagiya maNavALa jeeyar and writes several granthams himself on
our sampradhAyam.

Just
like periya perumAL, periya pirAtti, periya thiruvadi, periya AzhwAr
and periya kOil, AchAn piLLai also due to his greatness became to be
known as periyavAchAn piLLai.


maNavALa mAmunigaL in his upadhEsa rathina mAlai dedicates two pAsurams specifically to periyavAchAn piLLai.

pAsuram: 43
NampiLLai thammudaiya NallaruLAl Eviyidap (நம்பிள்ளை தம்முடைய நல்லருளால் ஏவியிடப்)
pin periyavAchAn piLLai athanAl (பின் பெரியவாச்சான் பிள்ளை அதனால்)
inbA varubathi mARan maRaip poruLai chonnathu (இன்பா வருபத்தி மாறன் மறைப் பொருளைச் சொன்னது)
irupathu nAlAyiram (இருபத்து நாலாயிரம்)
Simple
Translation: Out of his grace, nampiLLai orders periyavAchAn piLLai to
write a commentary for thiruvAimozhi. Having that in mind, periyavAchAn
piLLai wrote the most enjoyable commentary for nammAzhwAr’s
thiruvAimozhi which is the essence of all vEdhas.  The commentary was
written similar to sri rAmAyaNam, i.e., containing 24000 lines (similar
to 24000 slOkams in sri rAmAyaNam).

pAsuram: 46
periyavAchAn piLLai  pinbuLLavaikkum  (பெரியவாச்சான் பிள்ளை  பின்புள்ளவைக்கும்
theriya vyAkiyaigaL cheyvAl (தெரிய வ்யாகியைகள் செய்வால்)
ariya aruLichcheyal poruLai AriyargatkippOthu (அரிய அருளிச்செயல் பொருளை ஆரியர்கட்கிப்போது)
aruLichcheyalAyth thariNthu (அருளிச்செயலாய்த் தரிந்து)


Simple Translation: It is due to periyavAchAn piLLai’s
commentaries for aruLicheyal, the great teachers are able to understand
and propagate the true meanings of aruLicheyal. Without these
vyAkyAnams, no one can speak about the inner meanings of aruLicheyal.

Also,
mAmunigaL in pAsuram 39, identifies that periyavAchAn piLLai was one of
the 5 vyAkyAna karthAs for thiruvAimozhi, there by saving it and
propagating it to everyone since without the vyAkyAnams we cannot
understand the inner meanings of aruLicheyal.
Several incidents from his life are recorded in vArthA mAlai grantham and other pUrVAchArya granthams. Let us see some here:
  • When some asks if we are target of emperumAn’s krupai
    or leelai – periyavAchAn piLLai says “if we think that we are caught in
    this samsAram, we are target of emperumAn’s krupai and if we think that
    we are happy in this samsAram, we are target of emperumAn’s leelai”.
  • When some one asks what does pArathanthriya mean? periyavAchAn
    piLLai says that depending fully on emperumAn’s sakthi, completely
    giving up upAyAntharams (including self efforts) and ever longing for
    bhagavath kainkarya mOksham is pArathanthriyam.
  • When some one asks what is upAyam? Is it us giving up everything or holding on to him? periyavAchAn piLLai says that both are not upAyam it is emperumAn who made us give up everything and hold on to him is the upAyam.
  • Once when bandhu of periyavAchAn piLLai is
    worried and he asks for the reason. She says she is very worried since
    she has been in this samsAram since anAdhi kAlam and with so much karma
    how emperumAn will give her mOksham. For that     periyavAchAn piLLai says, we are emperumAn’s property and he will take us when he wants to irrespecitve of our karmas.
  • When a srivaishnava finds fault in another srivaishnava, periyavAchAn
    piLLai says that yaman is asking his servants to move away from
    srivaishnavas without looking at their faults, piAtti says “na kaschin
    na aparAdhyathi” – dont look at anyone’s faults, perumAL says even if my
    bhakthas do mistakes it is good only, AzhwAr says who ever emperumAn’s
    bhakthas are, they have to be praised. So sarcastically he says, some
    one needs to say the faults in srivaishnavas and let that some one be
    this person who finds faults in the other person.
  • During a discussion about the greatness about
    bhAgavathas, some one starts speaking about emperumAn and periyavAchAn
    piLLai says  why speak sAmAnya vishyam (general matters) when speaking
    about visEsha vishayam (special matters).
  • periyavAchAn piLLai says every srivaishnava must have involvement in aruLicheyal.
  • and so on.
Today
being AvaNi rOhiNi, the thirunakshathram of periyavAchAn piLLai, let us
bow down at his lotus feet and ever remember his contribution to our
sampradhAyam.
adiyen sarathy
ramanuja dasan


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